ACES ON BRIDGE

In today’s deal, South became declarer in four hearts after East had overcalled one diamond and West had stayed silent.

West led the diamond nine. East might have taken his ace and returned the suit, but he let the lead go around to South’s king instead. Declarer then played the heart 10 from his hand. East won with the ace before continuing with the diamond ace and another diamond. Declarer ruffed that high with the heart queen, but West discarded. No matter how South played from there, he had to lose two further trump tricks.

Declarer’s line of play looks normal, but perhaps he should have crossed to the spade ace and led the first heart from dummy. East, who was favored to have the singleton trump (if anyone did), would have to play his ace on thin air. Declarer could then preserve all his high hearts and use them to pick up West’s holding. It would be best to cross on a spade, not a club, the suit where the defenders were less likely to be threatening a second-round ruff, to advance the heart two from table.

As an aside, it is often a sound tactic for a defender to discard rather than overruff when attempting to promote intermediate cards in the trump suit.

The textbook example is when a defender holds king-10-low and declarer ruffs with the queen or jack ahead of him, from ace-queen-jack. If the defender overruffs, he makes only one trick. If he saves his king for later, he will score two tricks with both the king and the 10.

ANSWER: You do not need full opening values to overcall at the two-level. A good six-card suit with a top card outside is enough. The diamond 10 bolsters your suit and will make it harder for the opponents to penalize you. On the more positive side, bidding may allow you to compete or find a low point-count three no-trump. Six-card suits carry offense with them; five-card suits, far less so.